The apparent link between Zika and severe birth defects in children in Brazil still hasn’t been definitively proven but Chan says the threat is so high that she’s calling for an emergency committee to advise her on “the appropriate level of worldwide concern and for recommended measures that should be undertaken in affected countries and elsewhere”. The particular mosquito to blame for the Zika virus is the female Aedes Aegypti mosquito, a common mosquito in the warmer Gulf coast states.
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Meantime, the World Health Organization is holding an emergency meeting Monday to decide if the Zika outbreak should be declared an worldwide health emergency. The concern for humans is the correlation between the disease and more babies being born with smaller heads. “The increased incidence of microcephaly is particularly alarming, as it places a heart-breaking burden on families and communities”. Mosquito-control efforts are needed to help reduce the threat.
“The species of mosquito that transmits Zika is rarely found in Boston”, said Dr. Anita Barry, Director of the Infectious Disease Bureau at the Public Health Commission.
“But it has recently moved into the Americas, South America and Central America, says Epidemiologist Bradley Tompkins of the Vermont Department of Health”.
The CDC recommends that pregnant women consider postponing travel to those areas where the Zika virus is prevalent. “Hopefully we will not see anything worse than that, but we have to be very vigilant”, Fauci told “CBS This Morning”.
The Boston Public Health Commission confirmed the state’s first case of the Zika virus Thursday and said that additional cases should not come as a surprise.
The number of cases of infected people continues to grow and at least 20 people in the United States have contracted the virus. The organization works with low-income pregnant women.
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Davis has been studying insects for years, and says our best bet is to take precautions against mosquito bites with or without Zika around. But the difficulty with Zika is that so little is known about it. There’s no way to test for it and no cure. As many as 1.5 million Brazilians may have been infected with the Zika virus since its arrival in the country last spring.
